No one dies in "Office Girl." Or talks of war, international politics or economic collapse. But in "The Nervous System," a nameless, homeless veteran dubbed Dewey Decimal fights for his life in a dystopian near-future New York City. Joe Meno and Nathan Larson, the authors respectively of these just-published novels, will appear at the Olympia Timberland Library on Tuesday, July 10 from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Set in early 1999, Meno’s "Office Girl," as outlined by publisher Akashic Books, is the story of lovely Odile, a 23-year-old art-school dropout, and 25-year-old Jack, a shirker who’s happiest capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Caught in the uncertainty of their futures as the millennium comes to close, they decide to start their own art movement. The novel features black-and-white illustrations by Cody Hudson and photographs by Todd Baxter. 

In Larson’s "The Nervous System," New York City is sliding into chaos after large-scale terrorist attacks. An obsessive-compulsive veteran with a spotty memory and a love of literature who has taken up residence at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, "Dewey Decimal" attempts to clean up loose ends after the violent events of the first book in the series, The Dewey Decimal System. Then Decimal stumbles upon information concerning the gruesome murder of a prostitute and the involvement of a prominent U.S. senator. 

Meno is a fiction writer, playwright, and associate professor of fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago. He is a winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and was a finalist for the Story Prize. He is the author of five novels and two short story collections including Hairstyles of the Damned, The Great Perhaps, How the Hula Girl Sings, The Boy Detective Fails, Tender as Hellfire, and Demons in the Spring.

Larson is best known as an award-winning film music composer, having created the scores for over 30 movies, such as Boys Don't Cry, Dirty Pretty Things, and Margin Call. The Dewey Decimal System, his debut novel, was published by Akashic in 2011.

The Olympia Timberland Library is located at 313 8th Avenue. For more information, please contact the library at (360) 352-0595 or go to www.TRL.org.